Genre : fluff.
Summary : Henry is insecure about your relationship because of lack of physical interaction, but you happen to figure out a solution.
Warnings : None.
Word account : 1850.
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It was a shock when you had first announced your relationship with the puffy haired magic knight to your camarades. However, the reception was more than welcoming and encouraging.
Henry, on the other hand, had to listen from his bed as you delivered the news. The two of you had been taking it slowly for the past few months before you mutually decided to break the news to the rest of the squad.
He couldn't be there to witness their reaction. He couldn't be there to deliver the news himself. He couldn't be there to hold your hand as you waited for your teammates' response.
Instead, he had to sit still in his bed and imagine it all happen with the help of the loud voices in the hallways. He hated how his health didn't allow him to move much, basically taking half of his mobility. He hated the agonising, slow way he talked to people. But mostly, he hated how he couldn't approach you or physically interact with you.
Henry detested how he couldn't hug you, kiss you, hold your hand, or even touch the tip of your finger.
In spite of the loud negativity that flooded his head, he kept quiet. Henry was definitely not the type to complain. So, figuring out his true emotions required a sensitive eye to details and intense observation.
Thankfully, you weren't too dense to spot some those moments. You could tell from the way Henry was too quiet, or when he avoided looking at your eyes, or even when he stared at you with a smile, but you knew that his mind was absent from the dullness in his eyes.
To be honest, you also hated how you couldn't approach him because of how your mana would drain drastically in a matter of minutes. Sometimes, you would even become jealous of Asta's lack of mana that allowed him to approach and stay with Henry for as long as he desired.
Henry wasn't a man of many words, but he certainly carried a lot of burdens on his shoulders. Fortunately, not only did your magic's type come with potential, but also with a possible best solution for your current misery.
Stock Magic, similar to Captain Dorothy's magic, allowed you to stock anything in your grimoire by touching the target. You had been training hard to improve your magic from stocking away lifeless objects for the longest periods of time, into more lively beings like animals and humans. This gave you huge advantage in close combat, for it allowed you to imprison bulgares or invaders from the neighbouring kingdoms.
Witnessing Henry shove away his concerns and insecurities in front of you just to keep you happy broke your heart. Every day, you would see him fade away into the grey clouds in his mind, and it hurt more when you couldn't do anything about it but throw reassuring words of love and motivational speeches. Under the great desperation, an idea popped up in your head like a popcorn- an idea that would render you magicless.
With an unwavering determination, you decided to train secretly in order to stock your own mana away. The process was difficult, slow, and required the patience of a saint. First, you had to meditate to clear your mind, so that you could give your mana a tangible body in your mind. Second, you had to concentrate on moving your mana's shape out of your body and into your grimoire, and back. Third, you had to focus on keeping your mana out of your body for the longest time possible.
The second and third steps were the most challenging, for they demanded extensive concentration where your mind had to be present and absent at the same time.
But your love for your ill boyfriend fueled your motivation further and allowed you to persevere. Thus, your training had absolutely paid off when you managed to stock your own mana away for a few, slim minutes that extended to 7 minutes. It wasn't much, but it was definitely something to work with.
You happened to reach your success around Henry's birthday. So, you figured out that surprising him was the best way to celebrate such occasion.
Knocking on the door, you heard Henry's stretched reply come from the other side of the door. You opened the door and stepped into the room. Then, you walked a few steps before you stopped a few centimeters away from your boyfriend's bed.
He looked at you with a welcoming smile. He always felt joyful whenever you came to visit him. However, the insecurities frequently managed to intervene in his happy moments and destroy them with suffocating, intrusive thoughts.
But Henry had never shown any of it.
"Hello." Henry greeted you with a smile.
"Hey." You smile back at him, "Do you know what day it is?" You questioned.
"Sunday?" He looked at you with puzzled eyes.
"I know, silly. I meant what occasion?" You answered with a chuckle, your eyes glittering. Henry gave you a more confused look as he rummaged through the calendar in his memory.
"Oh." His answer finally came after a long thought. You couldn't help the smile that stretched wider on your cheeks.
"Yes. It's your birthday!" You laughed. Henry felt a bit embarrassed that he didn't remember his own birthday, but it quickly faded at the sound of your laughter.
"That's why I got you a gift." Your eyes beamed with excitement.
"(Y/n), you don't have to get me anything! It's really unnecessary." Came his stretched response, and you waited for him to finish patiently. The fact that you remembered was enough for him.
"Of course that's not true. Now, I want you to close your eyes." You commended with a soft, hyped voice. He was about to retort, but your pointing look hushed him instantly. He gazed at you with reluctant eyes before he decided to trust you and close his eyes.
Your own eyes flattered down as you concentrated on transmitting your mana into the confinement of your grimoire. After weeks of training, it became an easier task to complete.
Opening your eyes, you slowly took closer footsteps into your boyfriend's spot.
"(Y/n)? What are you doing?" There was concern and worry in Henry's question as he heard the sound of your footsteps closing in. You ignored his question and instructed, "Keep your eyes closed."
When you reached the edge of his bed, you knelt down and stared at his hands that clenched the blanket.
"(Y/n)?!" Your name left his lips quicker than it normally took for him to pronounce; his tone laced with panic and agitation because he feared that he was siphoning your mana. Strangely enough, he couldn't feel it for some reason.
With a breath out, you held his hand and wrapped it with your own. Before he could open his eyes to check on you, they widened in shock when he felt the soft skin that pressed against his firmly. For a moment, he froze at the sight of your hands intertwined.
It had been a long time since he felt another skin against his own. Ever since you started dating, you hadn't touched and resorted to holding conversations from a protective distance. Although Asta visited from time to time, he still kept a respectful distance.
Henry couldn't think of anything as his mind went blank. His emotions were all over the place, but if there was one emotion that dominated, it was longing. He didn't know this before, but Henry realized he was touch-starving.
Despite how awkward and disoriented your hands intertwined together, Henry wanted to savour each and every feeling of it. He wanted to save the warmth that rediated from your skin, the stinging that one nail gave him as it pierced through the back of his hand, the softness that covered your petite hand compared to his larger one.
For a moment, he felt overwhelmed.
You, in the other hand, kept your calm and waited for him to sort out his reaction. You could see the emotions dancing through his wide eyes that were full of disbelief. You couldn't imagine how it would be to touch another skin after spending a very long portion of life secluded from society.
Before you could register his reaction, tears ran down Henry's cheeks like an everlasting stream. A gasp left your lips, and before you could think, your arms embraced themselves around his slim figure. The gesture seemingly made him snap back to the reality that this was, indeed, happening.
Henry turned his arms around you in a tight hold; his fingers clenched the fabric of your robe from behind. He buried his face in your right shoulder while your hand palmed his head and rubbed his back. His body shook against yours, and he couldn't contain his sobs as he poured out every emotion, thought, and insecurity that overwhelmed him.
Even you couldn't help your own share of tears. Words of love and reassurance flowed out of your mouth as a reminder of summer in a cold winter. You occasionally pressed kisses into his disheveled hair.
The words didn't die in your mouth until Henry started to calm down. In his mind, he still couldn't believe that he had you in his arms without the risk of robbing you away from your mana. After a few more seconds, he pulled away to gaze at your eyes with his glassy ones.
It was the first time he would inspect your face closely, and he could notice every detail in each inch of your features. He so desperately begged his memory to save the picture in case this event never reoccurs.
The most mesmerising thing about your features to him were your sparkling eyes that reflected just how much love and joy you felt for this miserable man. Such brightness seemed to sip into him because his eyes started twinkling and a smile appeared on his lips.
The smile that you had on your face stretched wider into a grin at how genuinely happy this man seemed to be. Henry had no idea how you managed to stock your own mana, and he seemed curious about it from the way his eyebrow lifted.
"I trained to stock my mana for 7 minutes now." You briefly explained. Henry was curious to know, but that was the least of his concerns. Instead, he pulled you into another tight, secured hug. He wanted to do more, but he felt it wasn't right to overstep boundaries at the moment.
"Happy birthday, Henry." You whispered in his ear as you wrapped your arms around his neck. Little did you know, the gesture sent cold shivers down his spine, which triggered the butterflies in his stomach in result. He couldn't imagine that someone would go as far as working hard to become magicless for a certain period of time, just for him nonetheless.
"Thank you." He mumbled with a hushed tone, his limbs squeezed around you before his voice broke as he repeated: "Thank you so much."
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